Perspective
by ellieandhardy
Summary: Set between s2 and s3. Hardy and Ellie find themselves back in each other's lives after 2 years.
1. Ellie

She had a sense of déjà vu as she got into her car that morning. Maybe it was the song playing on the radio that reminded her of a specific moment in her life, or maybe it was the specific color of blue that she saw in a flash on a passerby on her way to the car. She looked to her passenger seat and frowned; it seemed even emptier today than it usually did.

It had been almost 2 years and yet here she was, still reminded of him. She almost hated him for it. Almost. It would be easier to move on if she actually did hate him. She shook her head in disappointment and annoyance at herself and the situation, and drove off to work.

It was a rare occurrence that she allowed herself to reminisce, but she knew that if she didn't indulge in it now, it wasn't going to get any easier throughout the day. The building itself is riddled with memories of him, and she wanted to have a clear head for the new faces that were supposed to be joining the team today.

It was less reminiscing and more getting into her head, thinking about what ifs that turned into regrets, and convincing herself that she did something wrong to have this radio silence directed toward her. No texts, no calls, no emails, not even any responses when _she_ contacted _him_. In fact, it actually took a couple of weeks for her to notice it. She started off with a "How's Daisy?" text to which she got no response, so she assumed it might have been a sore subject. She texted him when she got her job back, and the excitement of that day wore off quickly as minutes turned into hours turned into days, and she heard nothing. Then she emailed him, making sure that he didn't change his number and forget to tell her, and also to gripe about some of her new coworkers, to which, again - not a thing. She knew it would be all over the front page if he was dead, so she concluded he was still alive. Alive, and ignoring her.

Because even when she left to Devon and he stayed in Broadchurch, he kept in touch. So what was different now? Was it because he knew that he would never have to see her again afterwards? Because he didn't have Claire keeping him in Broadchurch nor the trial looming over his head? She knew he hated it here, but she didn't expect that hatred to extend to her as well.

Maybe she should have stayed that half hour and waited for his taxi with him. Maybe she should have been nicer to him at the end of it, even though she felt like her behavior was justified after the shit she had just gone through. Maybe she should have given him that hug.

But would it have even made a difference? She had one idea of what their relationship was like in her mind, but maybe he thought something different.

One weekend, she contemplated going up there, taking the drive she had made often enough throughout the trial, to try to find him and give him a piece of her mind. She gave up on that idea fairly quickly as she had her job, a teenager, and a toddler to worry about at home, and she knew it was probably a lost cause anyway. Eventually, she just resigned herself to the fact that she would probably never hear from him again, and she pretended not to care.

She got a flash of a memory from years ago, from before she met Joe, of the last man she felt something for. It was such a strong feeling during their first meeting that she thought she was going to marry him. But she never told him how she felt about him, and just like that, he was gone. The eerie similarity she felt between the two situations made her uncomfortable in her seat and she didn't like the comparison. She tried to shake off the feeling when she parked her car, physically shaking her head to try to get in the right mindset for the work day ahead, but she doubted that it was effective.

She walked up into the building, fumbling a bit with her bag as she went through the doors. She cheerfully smiled at everyone in the office as she went by, having another bout of déjà vu, remembering when she came back from holiday bearing gifts before she was told that the job lined up for her was given to someone else. She sat down and settled in to her desk.

"Miller. Come here."

She thought she was hearing voices with the weird day she was having, but she looked around anyway to see none other than Alec Hardy walking into his old office. She stayed seated with her mouth agape until she noticed everyone staring at her, so she got up and hesitantly made her way to the office. Her cautious footsteps made it seem like time was warping around her, and she thought she was in a dream. At the very least, it felt like a very strange memory of a dream she's had before.

She closed the door behind her, noting the fact that it was a real door, while she heard him wittering on about some new case they just received this morning. She turned around to look at him, her eyebrows furrowed and head cocked, before she went up to him and pinched his arm.

"What the hell did you do that for?" He shouted in his distinctive timbre.

She let off a scoff and slapped him before turning around to hide her smile.


	2. Hardy

He was recovering from the slight sting he felt on his left cheek when he heard her shout.

"Two years!" He walked over and shut the blinds as he noticed many pairs of eyes staring at them. "What are you doing here?" She asked, eyes boring into his skull as if she could drill a hole in it.

"New case, we should get going." He moved to grab his coat and headed toward the door.

"If you think I'm just going to go with you…" He raised his eyebrows at her as she was shaking her head. "Ugh, you're such a fucking wanker." She grumbled under her breath as she went through the door.

They got out to the car park outside the station and she was walking to go to her car before he stopped her.

"No, it's alright. I can drive." She turned around, stared for a brief moment, and began walking back toward his car. He felt like she was giving him the silent treatment now which, to be fair, he probably deserved, but it wasn't how he expected the day to go. She got into the car, grumbling things under her breath that he couldn't distinguish, and he followed right after.

The silence was almost damning as the ride went on, forcing him to be with his own thoughts and making him think up different kinds of explanations he could give her that would cause the least amount of damage. He eventually settled on a tried and true method of breaking the silence between them.

"You alright?"

He kept his eyes focused on the road ahead, but he could see her in his peripheral vision, seething. She violently turned her head away to look out the window, her entire body now closed off to any type of communication from him. This gesture worried him, but he decided to keep talking despite it.

"How are the kids?"

"No, you do NOT get to ask me that." She said, incredulously. Several minutes went by as he accepted the fact that it was just going to be a long, silent car ride, before he heard her speak up again. "Where are we going?" He turned to look at her for a split second, but her body was still turned away from him.

"Robbery. About 18 miles inland. SOCO are already there trying to get fingerprints."

"Oh, so they know you're here too, do they? I'm just the last one to know. Got it." There was a beat of silence before she continued. "Why do you even need me for this? Seems like a one-person job."

He tried to formulate a sentence in his mind of exactly why he did need her, but he couldn't come up with anything. After about 30 seconds with his mouth open, getting ready to speak, he finally let some words out, with a sigh.

"I feel…bad."

"What?" She turned toward him for a fleeting moment, the annoyance of him seeping through her pores that he didn't even have to look at her to see it.

"I know it must be hard to-" She cut him off.

"No, you know what? We're not doing this, just… stop talking." She turned back around to the window and he let out a considerable sigh.

They finally arrived at their destination after what seemed like hours of deafening silence, and he had never been happier to inhale a breath of fresh air as he was when he stepped out of the car.

"Right, have you found anything yet?" He directed to the group of officers congregated around the storefront. They started listing off the information for him, but he was only half-listening when he saw Brian go up to Ellie and start a conversation out of earshot, both catching glances of him, making it obvious who they were talking about. He was pulled out of his thoughts when one of the officers offered to show him around the crime scene, and he followed them into the building.

It took a few hours to gather all the information, and at the end of it, he felt his stomach rumble. Nothing a tea couldn't fix.

"I'm hungry." He heard her say as she joined him at the car.

"Did you not bring a lunch today?"

"We're about a half hour away from the station, not including traffic, and I'm not waiting until then. Give me the keys, I'm driving." He handed her the keys and chuckled a bit at the banter, before going over to the passenger side.

"Your legs are too long." She stated as she moved the seat forward and adjusted the mirrors before taking off. He smiled for a second, and then started changing the channels on the radio before he remembered the last time he did that with her in the car, and just settled on the last one he landed on. The music annoyed him, so he decided to look at her for a moment so he could have something else to focus on.

"Stop looking at me." She barked, and he was taken aback for a second.

"I'm not." He turned to face straight ahead but something caught his eye. "Did you style your hair differently today?" He noticed her hands gripping the steering wheel.

"It has been two years." She said in an unpleasantly calm voice.

"Well, technicall-"

"Shut up." She moved her hand into a gesture miming a closed mouth directed toward him. "Until we get there." Her hands went back to the steering wheel and he turned to look straight ahead, listening to the awful music playing in the background.

Toward the end of their meal, well, her meal, and his tea, she let off a sigh, priming herself to speak for the first time since she ordered the food.

"So where are you living now?" She asked, taking a sip of her water.

He sighed. "Near the beach. With Daisy, she's living with me now."

"Really?" He nodded, avoiding eye contact and allowing a prolonged silence afterwards because he knew she would want an explanation. He took a deep breath in.

"What about you? How's…everything?" Immediately after he said it, he felt so awkward and out of place; he didn't do this sort of thing.

She stared at him for a bit before replying. "Good. Both boys are so much older now, it feels like I can't keep up sometimes. Beth's baby, too, she's so big now, and she-"

He let her continue to talk as he sipped on his tea while he got the opportunity to relish in the feeling of relief. Relief that he finally escaped the war zone that Tess had created, relief that Ellie didn't hate him after all, and relief that Daisy would be able to get her fresh start here, just like he had. It was comparable to the feeling of coming home after a long day's work, and he slowly closed his eyes and exhaled.

"Are you even listening to me?" He opened his eyes and sat straight up.

"Yes, the Latimers, Broadchurch. Continue." He waved his hand for her to resume as he finished his tea. She narrowed her eyes at him before picking up where she left off, and he smiled into his mug.


End file.
